What To Do When the World Isn’t Wonderful

“And I think to myself… what a wonderful world…”. I spun around the living room with Isaiah in my arms and Louis’ voice playing loud. But the words felt like a faded dream.

We settle into our morning and turn on Sesame Street. “Sunny Day, Sweepin’ the clouds away. On my way to where the air is sweet. Can you tell me how to get, How to get to Sesame Street. Come and play. Everything’s A-OK. Friendly neighbors there. That’s where we meet…” The joyful song, that we could all sing in our sleep, feels ironic today.

Two women trying to sell me their belief come to the door and knock despite the sign telling them a baby is resting inside. The dogs bark and Isaiah’s eyelids fly open. I run to the door and fling it open just as they’ve retreated to the end of the driveway. “CAN Y’ALL READ?!” I yell at full volume (despite the sore throat I’ve been nursing for days). I slam the door so hard the wall shakes almost almost as much as the voice saying, “Uh, um… yeah, sor-“. I’ll never hear the rest of that apology.

I couldn’t possibly absorb all of the trivial, ignorant, negative, self-important nonsense on Facebook this morning. A wide range of topics all boiled down to images meant to evoke hatred, words meant to trigger disagreement, and information shared before even a word of it has been fact checked. I log out. Even checking in for messages every few days seems like a waste of neural activity. One scroll through the so-called newsfeed stretches my compassion to it’s furthest limit.

And you know what? There are beautiful creatures of every shape and sort strewn along the beach. Dead. Corpses that rose from the deep after absorbing toxins… a step outside when the wind is just so, reveals their state. Too many chemicals pouring into the sea causing rampant algae blooms, they say. Worse than I have ever known it to be in all my years of living here.

So, here is the completely unguarded truth, it’s hard not to hate humanity today. Before you weigh in or throw blame or join my rage parade… let me tell you, I am not looking for that. Too many of our problems connect to the fact that there is always someone there to validate our poor decisions, horrible opinions, and harsh judgement.

Instead, I am going to remind myself that I too can be foolish, selfish, misguided, careless, apathetic, and short-sighted. I am often no better than the humanity that makes my blood boil. So I’m going to dive into Truth, pray for wisdom, and focus my efforts on impacting my little pocket of this world. I’m going to do all I can to be a good steward of the responsibility placed in our hands. I’m going to release, repent, and love.

If that takes logging out, taking a step back, turning off the tv, and recalibrating the heart…then I shall. And I would implore you to do the same. Do a heart check today. See what you find.

Just as the food so many choose, the pollutants carelessly consumed, and the thoughtless policies supported contribute to the overflowing toxins in the water… the strong current of toxic thought that we allow to seep into our every pore is polluting us.